Melbourne International Comedy Festival review

Mel McGlensey arrives in Melbourne with a ‘best comedy’ award she won in Adelaide and reviews ablaze with a constellation of stars – while here in the quirky Butterfly Club, the audience adore her brand of dumb clowning, and are vocal in expressing it.

So I have to conclude it may be something in me that’s awry in finding the performance one-dimensional and simplistic, labouring both its comedy and its message.

As a performer, McGlensey certainly has oodles of silly, bright-eyed, faux-naive charm. She takes to the stage in a sexy version of the Shirley Temple sailor outfit and the entirely misleading demeanour of being a showgirl in a wholesome 1950s MGM musical. In this world, motorboat means an engine-powered vessel and NOTHING ELSE. Honest.

McGlensey plays that titular boat, tied up in the dock and eager to do anything to please her Captain Daddy. Until one day, she ventures out into the open sea, without his permission and despite the warnings of an advancing storm. And wouldn’t you know it – metaphor ahoy! – that she prefers being free, however tempestuous and unpredictable that is, to being tethered.

The audience are invited to play along, bobbing up and down like fellow boats on the waves, or tossing her avatar about in the gales. And if you sniggered at the word ‘tossing’ this could be the show for you.

McGlensey puts the naughty in nautical, with the sense of humour of an old-timey smutty seaside postcard. You won’t see as much tit-jiggling anywhere else in the festival as her breasts are introduced  as the boat’s horns, its bow, its motor and the ‘boob deck’ as she gives us the introductory guided tour, then feature heavily throughout 

A few people are roped in to help – literally, if you are the one playing the dock. In a comic-heavy audience that honour went to Josh Glanc tonight, with Rob Duncan of the Duncan Brothers deployed as a tug-boat to return the errant Motorboat back to base.

It’s jolly and light-hearted, but also a 10-minute idea extended to 50, quickly getting repetitive. The childish double entendres, fun at first, become tiresome, and the narrative gets, well, lost at sea, as McGlensey pads it out.

So this didn’t float my boat, despite the clear appeal of this cheerful clown’s buoyant personality, which swept up so many other audience members in its wake.

Review date: 11 Apr 2024
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Melbourne International Comedy Festival